Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The biker who was shoved by an NYPD officer during a "critical mass" rally last year, only to find a video of the incident uploaded to YouTube by a bystander, is now suing the NYPD for $1.5 million. Though the officer originally claimed that the biker had provoked the altercation during the rally, the video - which racked up over 2 million views - demonstrates otherwise.

The New York Daily News quotes the victims lawyer: "Nobody would have cried foul if it wasn't for that video."

While the NYPD did fire the officer, the biker is looking for more justice. If his lawsuit prevails, you wonder if he'll share a portion the settlement with the YouTuber who caught and uploaded the incident...

hell yeah good for him suing. im glad that dumb ass cop got fired. i hope he gets every penny. i wouldnt share it either because the camera man sounds like a mexican. he's probably illegal so his reward is being in america.

Those critical mass jerkoffs have no respect for police and are always instigating confrontation. Could be much more to this story than the video shows. Did the guy on the bike violate a law seconds before this? He wasnt even slowing down even though the officer was trying to get across the street.

Just another example of the fact that the police in this country have too much power. As usual, when an officer abuses their power, all they have to do is say "the subject started it / or was doing something illegal" and the officer is automatically believed, and is off the hook despite their wrongful behavior. This type of thing happens every day... this time, there just happened to be a camera. Somewhere along the way the overall mentality of our law enforcement officers has changed from "Protect and Serve" to "Bully and Force Respect". We need systems in place which will force our law enforcement officers to be accountable to the people they are sworn to serve and protect, and not allow abuse of the power that We the People have given to them.

We're human after all, why can't we treat each other lovingly? Everyone needs to chill and just be cool. There was no need for this assault...makes me weep for humanity…such abuse of power. Absolutely pathetic.

Police don't stop crime. The come by after you have been muged and tell you we will do everything we can to catch the mugger. They do some paper work, stand around, talk to each other, go home and laugh about how much money they make for doing nothing.

Hey Cool Cop... Although your argument would ordinarily hold a bit of water, in this instance, I think you have your head up your ass... I have worked with cops before, and actually have a few as friends. But what I found in a lot of the cops personalites were "us against them". While that may be swell for having a beer and blowing off steam after a long day of dealing with mostly the lower end of the population (I'm being nice here)... It a lot of times works against the whole purpose of "Peace Officer". Actually, IMHO, I believe that we depend WAY too much on Law Enforcement. Loosen up on the gun permit laws and let decent law abiding citizens protect themselves. With all the buget crunches and Police being stretched too thin as it is, a good aim, good judgement, and good reflexes could rid some of the worst of society whom choose to ruin it for the rest of society. But I digress. I think enough footage of the video and the pure fact that the officer was fired (not an easy feat in most departments) speaks volumes. So what I'm saying is you gave a knee jerk "typically expected response" coming from the average law enforcement officer. And it makes me think you've been in the business way too long. Find another job in another sector of law enforcement or be a desk jockey. Your "open minded" response is so easy to see through... Best Regards

I think Critical Mass should be illegal. Any person that participates in it should be ticketed, find a bike park and do your thing there. How would avid bike riders feel if we sat down on their bike trails and played jacks, did yoga, or parked our cars on their designated trails.

Police have a difficult job to do .. where would we be without official enforcement ! You just can't let the world run wild .. Sure there's the overzealous minority .. but my hat's off for the guys that that take on a job most of their detractors couldn't cope with <> I agree with a prvious writer there could be more to it than what the video showed

I've gotta tell you guys that I know some policemen and women personally.... and they are great people ! What happens in these cases of corruption is that it is so higly publicised that the people perceive it to be a bigger issue than it actually is.

Actually this video really makes me wonder... it just doesn't look right to me... why would he have randomly attacked that specific biker? There were crowds of people watching, and he was just standing right in the middle in view of them all... there has got to be some additional story.

$1.5 million dollars is appropriate. This is not the activity of "one bad apple". If it was, the police officer's partner would have arrested him on the spot. On the contrary, the other officer did nothing, indicating a systemic problem with the police force. The award must be enough to force the chain of command to take notice, and take actionto insure those without the temperment to be police officers are removed.

I'm sure the rider knows he wont be seeing EVERY cent of that $1.5 mil. So why not sue for some crazy amount. Start big and let the judge or defending attornies slowly bring it down. Anyway, all we saw were people riding bikes and this one guy get shoved over by this cop. I would love to know what happened in the "prequel" of this video.

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